On Friday, July 24, Charli xcx released her new album Music, Fashion, Film. Following on from the cultural phenomenon that was BRAT, the artist is officially entering her next era, but can she match the success of her 2024 record?

Charli xcx is one of the defining artists of our time, building a career characterised by reinvention, collaboration, and a singular approach that has influenced both the sound and visual language of contemporary culture. She describes Music, Fashion, Film as being “about process”, drawn from her broad range of experience in each of the three industries. As well as her obvious musical success – winning three Grammys and five Brits – she has expanded her creative practice into fashion and film, where she acts, writes, produces and scores projects with directors including Takashi Miike, Greg Araki and Cathy Yann.

Charli released four singles in the lead-up to the album, giving audiences a taste of what was to come. The first was ‘Rock Music’, an explicit signal to a move away from the electronic sounds of BRAT to more guitar-heavy tracks. 

going from listening to charli xcx sing about how she’s a terrible gf who cheats to being married and worrying that she’s a terrible wife whose husband will leave her pic.twitter.com/QtnVjxYhLU

— sophia (@charliyuri) July 24, 2026

Next came ‘SS26’, and as Dale Malone noted in an article for GCN, this felt like a true mission statement. “The track is less concerned with introducing a new sound than it is with examining what happens after cultural domination. Because if BRAT represented Charli reaching the summit, ‘SS26’ sounds like an artist staring down the other side of the mountain,” Malone wrote.

‘Wink Wink’ was then released in late June, followed by ‘Camera’, which came out just days before the album. In both, Charli once again appears to consider where she goes post-BRAT summer.

In ‘Wink Wink’, she jokes about reinvention, singing, “Here’s the truth, and I gotta be honest / I’m not a bad girl anymore, I promise”. In ‘Camera’, the messaging feels less playful and more defiant. She seems unafraid to take the leap off the side of the mountain: “It’s like I’m looking down the barrel of a gun (F*cking shoot me) / I don’t feel embarrassed even if I suck / I’m always craving an experience that feels dangerous / And maybe this is it, maybe it’s what I need”.

me after listening to music fashion film by charli xcx pic.twitter.com/1FF63HoCzM

— lea (@leaaxcx) July 24, 2026

Music, Fashion, Film contains seven other songs, ‘Card Declined’, ‘2007’, ‘I’m Afraid’, ‘Yeah’, ‘Persona’, ‘Magic Metal Montana’, and ‘No One Lasts Forever’ featuring David Cronenberg. The project was produced alongside A. G. Cook and Finn Keane, and has a total length of just over 30 minutes.

The album cover features a black and white image of Velvet Underground musician John Cale, fashion designer Marc Jacobs and film director Martin Scorsese, photographed by Aidan Zamiri, who’s been behind the camera for some of Charli’s music videos as well as her mockumentary The Moment. The artwork is an obvious nod to the title, and also reflects the project’s overall themes of art, success and immortality.

 

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The first reviews have landed for Music, Fashion, Film from critics and fans alike. The Guardian gives it five stars, describing it as a “slippery search into selfhood that hits just as hard as Brat”. Pitchfork’s take was similarly positive, scoring it an 8.2 and saying it “offers mystifying glances behind the curtain of stardom”. Rolling Stone gives it four stars, commending it as “a brilliant, catchy, often very funny look at the machinery of fame”.